Furnace Gym
by creativeone298
Summary: I got this from a list of prompts on tumblr that I can't remember for the life of me: in the gym class where the coach treats all activities like Olympic level training AU. This is a short, stupid drabble, but our fandom need some love, so I'm putting this up.


Alex nervously walked into the gym and looked around. There was a dark-haired kid to his left who looked just as lost as he was, a bigger guy who looked more miserable than he was, a skinny guy who probably weighed less than the bar, and this muscly guy who looked like he ate the five pound dumbbells for breakfast. The rest of the guys didn't stand out too much to him. The next thing he noticed was the coach. He stood tall, with a very German face. He looked down at the class, eyeing them as if they were larvae.

"Get into line, maggots." Alex shrugged, thinking 'larvae' was close enough to 'maggots.' "My name is coach Cross. This class will boot you into shape, whether you like it or not." As he said this, he seemed like he looked almost directly at Alex. Alex had wanted to take a film editing class, but it was too full, so he got stuck in AP Gym instead. He'd had his basic gym requirement down, but half of these lunkheads looked like they ate and breathed stupid.

"Now, I'll split you into weight training groups!" He rattled off a few names, none of which he recognized, until: "Donovan! Sawyer! Hatcher! You three are in a group!"

Alex stepped forward, and the kid who walked in with him came as well. The two of them looked to see who Donovan was, and he was one of the kids who'd probably already done this class once.

"Please tell me that I misheard and that you two are actually supposed to be partnered up with Cronodan or something like that."

"Nope, we're here to stay. What's your names anyway?" Alex asked.

"Zee Hatcher." The kid with the brown hair responded.

"Carl Donovan, but you'd better call me by my last name."

"Gotcha, Donovan." Zee responded. The three of them walked over to the weight room.

"Okay maggots, see those weights? You've all already been through a basic gym class before, so I want you all to bench at least forty five kilograms. If you can't, do twenty pushups for every four kilos you drop. Go."

Zee and Alex looked at each other in horror. Donovan shrugged.

"I'll go first because you two are going to take forever and a day to get to your comfort weight. You, Sawyer-"

"Alex"

"Alex, I'll bet you can only do thirty four, tops. Zee, I think you can pull off thirty six."

"See Alex, Donovan believes in me." Zee said mockingly.

"How much can you lift?" Alex asked, but it had undertones of a challenge.

"Can you get a twenty kilo weight and put it on that side? I've got this one."

"I'll bet you're just warming up." Alex rolled his eyes as he hefted the weight onto the bar.

"I am, actually."

When coach Cross called out to start going, Alex barely had time to spot Donovan as he knocked out ten reps easily. He struggled more up to twenty, but Alex and Zee were still awed.

"You've got to be like that, or the warden gets on your ass."

"Warden?" Alex asked.

"Yeah, we call the coach that, and you'll see why when you start. Here, let's set you up with your forty five, bless your noodle arms."

Alex huffed, but he was secretly terrified. When he positioned himself under the bar, the coach yelled to go. Alex barely succeeded in lifting up the weight before his arms couldn't take it anymore.

"Come on Alex, you've got this!" Zee encouraged.

Alex squirmed around like a dead fish (as Zee would describe it later when telling it to Simon) under the dead weight, but as hard as he tried, he couldn't make it budge.

"What do we have here?" Alex heard the silken snarl from in front of him, but couldn't lift his head. Donovan quickly helped the weight off of him and tensed.

"Twenty pushups, Sawyer, then take off four kilos, and see if you're more comfortable then. I will turn you into a champion, but that takes work. Now get up and let Hatcher do his round."

Alex waited until Cross had walked away for a while and sighed.

"If my arms are noodles, they need to go al dente quickly."


End file.
